Sacramento Leaf Collection to Start Later

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

SACRAMENTO –

The autumn leaves have only just begun to fall in Sacramento, the City of Trees. And yet, leaf piles are already beginning to impede Midtown parking.

Typically, the city’s Recycling and Solid Waste Division allows residents to put open piles of leaves along their streets for curbside pickup beginning in October. But this year, the city changed the dates of the program. It will start later and last longer.

“So the first day you can put piles out is November first,” explained spokeswoman Erin Treadwell. ”The last day piles go out is January 31st.”

In the interim, Treadwell said customers should use their green waste collection bins. ”They’ll get collected on their normal garbage collection day.”

The city sent our mailers over the summer, alerting customers to the change. But the leaf piles that are currently impeding parking spaces in Midtown are evidence that some residents or their gardeners didn’t get the message.

Code enforcement officers are going door-to-door this week, contacting customers where they find October leaf piles, according to Treadwell. Customers will have the opportunity to pick up their own piles. Those who do not comply may face $250 fines.

FOX40 found one cooperative customer in Midtown who was surprised at how much debris he was able to fit in his yard waste container.

“It’s been working,” said Gary Dennen. “I’m pretty impressed. I didn’t think it was going to work, but it does. But then, you know, things are usually not as bad as you think they’re going to be.”

People who park in Midtown can only hope the rest of the neighborhood is equally cooperative and informed while they wait for the city to begin leaf pile pickups in November.

“Parking is priceless around here,” said Jules Humphrey, a resident frustrated by the number of parking spaces blocked by the piles when she’s looking for a place to park. “You’re trying to go around and around and around…and you’re like, ‘oh my gosh; there’s a parking spot right there.’ But you can’t park in it…because of the leaves.”